In 2021, the 63-year-old is still the nation’s pop gatekeeper. Why won’t broadcasters give viewers what they want, rather than yet another tedious episode of Later…?
Hold on to your hats people, because a new series of Later … With Jools Holland is under way. In the opening episode, which aired on Saturday, Jools welcomed Damon Albarn and Emeli Sandé. They chatted about upcoming projects and had a poke around in the BBC archives. It was cosy, predictable and rather dull. Jools Holland is an amiable chap who, over decades of service, has proved beyond doubt that he loves music with a passion. But can it really be a good thing that a 63-year-old is music’s TV gatekeeper and – at present – our only option?
There are a number of well-rehearsed justifications for there being so little popular music on TV now. For a start, what is popular music in 2021? Isn’t it splintered and atomised into such a bewildering variety of microgenres that doing justice to all of it would be impossible? And, as for TV, hasn’t it been replaced by streaming anyway? Haven’t the under-30s long since given up on linear, broadcast television?